Dental magnifying and illuminating



Aug. 7, 1951 c. A. LEVINSON DENTAL MAGNIFYING AND ILLUMINATING DEVICE Filed July 13, 1949 INVENT OR.

C/mr/es ALevfm on Patented Aug. 7, 1951 DENTAL MAGNIF YING AND ILLUMINA'I'ING DEVICE Charles A. Levinson, Brookline, Mass. Application July 1:, 1949, Serial No. 104,490

1 Claim. 1

' This invention relates to a new and improved I dental technique according to which the dentist can obtain amagnified view of the interior of the patients mouth while at the same time the patient sees a reflected image of the interior of his month, which image is an exact duplicate, except for size, of the magnified view seen by the dentist.

There are two important advantages resulting from this technique. In the first place, since the dentist has a magnified view of his patients mouth, he can perform his dental work with greater accuracy and precision, and the magnifled view also enables the dentist to discover and correct pin point defects in his patients teeth which might otherwise be unobserved.

" In the second place, since the patient sees at all times a reflected image of the interior of his mouth, he can watch the dental operations and can thus get a better understanding as to what the dentist is doing and why he is proceeding as he does in connection with any dental operation.

,Making provision for the patient to view the dental operations carried on in his mouth is good psychology because it stamps the dentist as a truly scientific man who strives for perfection.

In practicing my improved dental technique I employ a magnifying glass which is placed so that the dentist sees the patients mouth through it and gets a magnified view of the teethon which he is to operate. This magnifying glass is also so placed that while the dentist can obtain his view of the patients mouth through it, the patient also receives from the magnifying glass a reflected image of his own mouth. In accordance with this method of dental operation therefore, the magnifying glass performs two functions; (1) it provides the dentist with a magnified view of the patients teeth and (2) it provides a reflected image of the patients teeth which is visible to the patient.

The dental equipment which is used by dentists includes a spotlight or other source of illumination for illuminating the patients mouth, and in order to make the reflected image of his mouth visible to'the patient, an opaque screen is interposed between the spotlight and the magnifying glass so that the latter is in the shadow of the screen. By so doing the reflected image of the patients mouth becomes visible to him and he can watch the operations of the dentist on his teeth.

In order to give an understanding of the invention, I have illustrated in the drawings one manner in which the improved dental technique may be practiced.

In the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a view illustrating a portion of the usual dental unit which forms part of the equipment of every dentist's oilice together with the magnifying glass and screen which form part of and are identified with my improvements.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-4, Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the source of illumination, the screen and the magnifying glass as seen looking from above.

In the drawings there is shown at I in dotted lines a portion of any usual dental unit such as is used by all dentists and which is provided with an arm 2 on which the usual spot light or source of illumination 3 is supported. Such spotlight is usually mounted on the supporting arm 2 so that it can be adjusted into different positions as required by the dental operations. A type of spotlight commonly used is one which projects a beam of light on the patients mouth. as indicated by the dotted lines 20 in Figs. 1 and 3.

In carrying out my invention I employ a magnifying glass 4 and provide means :for supporting the glass in front of the mouth of the patient 5 and in position so that the dentist 6 can obtain a view of the patients teeth through the magnifying glass, the view which the dentist receives being, of course, a magnified view.

While any suitable magnifying glass may be employed for this purpose, I have obtained good results by using a magnifying glass with a +5.00 diopter lens, although, as stated above, any sultabie magnifying glass could be used. This magnifying glass may be mounted on any appropriate support and for the purposes of illustration it is shown as carried by a jointed supporting arm 1 which is adjustablyattached to the arm 2 of the dental unit. I. The magnifying-glass supporting arm 1 is carried by a collar 8 which can be adjustably clamped to the arm 2 and as stated above, the arm 1 is preferably a jointed arm having the ball joints 9 which permit ready adjustment of the position of the magnifying glass 4 to meet the requirements. The position of the magnifying glass 4 relative to the patients be varied more or less, but with the glass having 9, +5.00 diopter lens, I have found that best results are obtained by placing the magnifying glass about five inches from the patients mouth.

The magnifying glass 4 produces by refraction a magnified image of the patients mouth which the dentist sees as indicated by the dot and dash lines III.

The magnifying glass 4 also produces a reflected image of the patients mouth, and in order to make such reflected image visible to the pamouth may tient, I place an opaque screen ll between the spotlight 3 and the magnifying glass 4 so that the magnifying glass will be in the shadow (indicated by the lines l2) cast by the screen, which shadow darkens sufficiently the area behind the magnifying glass as viewed by the patient to make the reflected image visible. With the magnifying glass thus placed in the shadow of the screen, the image of the patients mouth refiected from the magnifying glass will be visible to the patient as indicated by the dotted line l3.

With this arrangement, therefore, the magnifying glass performs the double function of providing the dentist with a magnified view of the patients teeth and providing the patient with a visible reflected image of his teeth which is an exact duplicate, except for size, of the magnified view which the dentist has.

The opaque screen i I may be supported in any approved way.

As herein shown it is mounted on a supporting arm ll which is also adjustably mounted on the arm 2 of the dental unit. The arm I4 is preferably a jointed arm provided with the ball joints 15 so that the position of the screen may be adjusted to meet the requirements.

In performing his work on the teeth of any patient the dentists head is customarily so located that his line of vision to the patients teeth is below and at one side of the beam of light 20 by which the patients mouth is illuminated, so that the screen Il may be placed to cast a shadow on the magnifying glass without interfering with the illumination of the patients mouth by said beam of light.

This is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3. Fig. l, which is a side view, shows the dentists head 6 located below the beam of light 20, and in Fig. 3,

4 which is a view looking from above, the dentists head is shown as located at one side of said beam of light '20.

The screen ll need only be large enough to cast a shadow on the magnifying glass and as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 a screen sufficiently large for this purpose can be used without materially intercepting the beam of light 20.

-I claim:

Dental equipment comprising a magnifying glass, means supporting said magnifying glass in the dentists line of vision of the mouth of the patient on which he is working so that the dentist receives through the magnifying glass a magnifled view of the patients teeth and also in a position to reflect to the patient an image of his mouth, a spotlight for illuminating the mouth of the patient, means supporting said spotlight in a position in the rear of the head of the dentist, an opaque screen, and means supporting said screen in a position between the spotlight and the magnifying glass so that the latter is in a darkened area caused-by the shadow cast by the screen and also is in a position out of the dentists line of vision of the patients mouth through the magnifying glass, whereby the re flected image of his mouth is made visible to the patient by reason of the darkened area behind the magnifying glass as seen by the patient.

CHARLES A. LEVINSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,104,198 Jones Jan. 4, 1938 

